Posted on 08/03/2023 8:05:45 PM PDT by anthropocene_x
About 40 million Americans have stopped going to church in the past 25 years. “That’s something like 12 percent of the population, and it represents the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history,” he writes.
The Great Dechurching, a forthcoming book analyzing surveys of more than 7,000 Americans conducted by two political scientists, attempts to figure out why so many Americans have left churches in recent years.
The book suggests that the defining problem driving out most people who leave is … just how American life works in the 21st century. Contemporary America simply isn’t set up to promote mutuality, care, or common life. Rather, it is designed to maximize individual accomplishment as defined by professional and financial success. Such a system leaves precious little time or energy for forms of community that don’t contribute to one’s own professional life or, as one ages, the professional prospects of one’s children.
The economists of the early 20th century did not foresee that work might evolve from a means of material production to a means of identity production. They failed to anticipate that, for the poor and middle class, work would remain a necessity; but for the college-educated elite, it would morph into a kind of religion, promising identity, transcendence, and community.
Workism doesn’t deliver on these promises. Even so, for those who have come to view work as the guiding principle of life, other priorities can quickly fall by the wayside. “The underlying challenge for many is that their lives are stretched like a rubber band about to snap—and church attendance ends up feeling like an item on a checklist that’s already too long,” Meador writes.
"American efficiency culture” makes it so that we’re just not incentivized to take it slow, sit down, and meet someone new.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Amen!
My wife and I have been in various churches. Raised our kids in a good family church with lots of community and good Biblical teaching. Got a new pastor and it started going woke.
Went to another church, and the same thing happened after about 8 years (well, same pastor for all 8 years, but then the BLM stuff happened, and when I was in a leadership role I saw how much more woke it was than what we saw in the pews.)
But a great community and one really good conservative teacher that we had a group with every Sunday.
The last two years have been at a smaller church with great conservative Biblical preaching. But is lacking on the community aspect of it.
So - we are beginning our search again to find the right fit. For us the community aspect is huge - with folks that have Biblical wisdom.
Back in the day folks depended on the church in their time of need. Now it is the government. Probably by design (by the government).
It’s not that simple.
Mosques in the muslim world are emptying and so are Buddhist and Hindu temples in Thailand and India
Very interesting. Atlantic writers are truly morons, n’est-ce pas?
This is what happens when you leave Torah. Eventually your spiritual inheritance is gone and the checks from your cultural bank account begin to bounce. There is only one solution: Repent, and return to the Torah, and the way of life so perfectly walked out by the rabbi from Nazareth.
Most churches are dead. They’re not teaching the truth of the word of god, they’re not filled with the Holy Spirit, they’re totally focused on teaching rules and regs of their denomination or trying to appease the culture. I’m a solid believer and I have yet to find a decent Church that follows the word of God. It’s sad to watch
For us, it’s because churches have become entertainment centers.
Just walking in to church is cringe-worthy. It used to be that prior to service, people would sit respectfully and prayerfully in the pews. Now the adults flit around, chit-chatting and laughing; kids run around like animals. Socializing was done any other place than the sanctuary.
Then it deteriorates further to big screens, CCM, deacons in flip-flops, “hellos-and-handshakes time” (carnival atmosphere), etc.
At one church where the preacher’s wife was (still is) a dear friend, I told her I was going to play carnival music on the organ during hellos-and-handshakes. She dared me. I did it. Of course, nobody could hear because it was so frikkin noisy.
“Support[ing] gun control at federal, state, and local levels as the most effective response to the present crisis of gun violence …
Call[ing] upon the United States government to establish meaningful and effective federal legislation to regulate the importation, manufacture, sale, and possession of guns and ammunition by the general public. Such legislation should include provisions for the registration and licensing of gun purchasers and owners, appropriate background investigations and waiting periods prior to gun purchase, and regulation of subsequent sale.
Urg[ing] the enactment of similar state and local laws, should such federal legislation be delayed.
Call[ing] upon government agencies at all levels to provide significant assistance to victims of gun violence and their families.(3)
In 1998, the General Assembly added to its policy by calling on all Presbyterians to:
intentionally work toward removing handguns and assault weapons from our homes and our communities; and
seek ways to develop community strategies and create sanctuaries of safety for our children, so that all of our children may come to identify and value themselves and others as the precious children of the family of God that they are, and that they may come to learn peace for their lives and peace for this generation.(4)
In 2000, the General Assembly reaffirmed the church’s commitment to gun control and called for strengthening gun ownership legislation.(5)”
PCUSA statement on gun violence
......,..,
Any other questions?
Right on brother. Every man is his own priest.
Yes, and the author of this article is treating church as a place to “slow down and meet people.” Yet the author also hit the nail on the head, that people have come to worship their careers, accomplishments and money over church and family. What is missing is GOD. The true God. Family and fellowship are gifts from Him.
Churches today, with their prosperity gospel and equally Satanic wokeism, are offering what the world already has. No wonder they are dying. What a tragedy because Bible-believing,God-centered churches don’t deserve that same fate.
Sounds like a lovely church to me. Better are 20 people who love Jesus and are like a family than 1,000 bringing their coffee into a sanctuary to hear a liberal pastor and deafening music.
Most church services now have turned into a sick show, not a worship service. It’s disgusting.
Try Adrian Rogers. Excellent preacher. Love Worth Finding is his YouTube channel. He is long gone but, thankfully, his messages have been preserved.
The Pope ain’t helping and to many freaks have infested the church ranks, I’m guessing by design.
You don’t need a commercialized church to be close to God and religion doesn’t cost money.
You do know that the SBC takes government money for aiding and abetting illegal aliens, don’t you?
I suspect my ancestors were Nonconformists.
Everything old is new again.
don’t you fellowship with christians outside of the Sunday services?
reading all these comments I wonder why anyone would disagree with the interpretation of the mustard seed turning into a tree represents the church being an abomination now with the birds of the air nesting in it branches.
not the interpretation of the church being large and glorious.
congregations are controlled by old people that will not permit any change
3 yr lockdown, age, change in hymns, preaching. They aren’t Billy Graham or others like him. When I’m told I can’t go to the RR during lukewarm preaching and I’m thinking do you want the puke on your carpet?
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